A beloved bald eagle was struck by a power line above a Milpitas school

Milpitas, Calif. — As hundreds of students streamed out of Milpitas Elementary School on a recent afternoon, a lone bald eagle perched above them in a redwood tree — only occasionally glancing toward the mountains after school, training its eyes on the grassy hills along the western horizon.

A week ago, his friend was electrocuted on nearby power lines operated by PG&E.

Kevin Slavin, principal of Cortner Elementary School, said the eagles in the nest are so popular and beloved that they have become school mascots and “the whole ethos of the school has been tied around them” since they arrived in 2017.

Exactly what happened to send the hopeful eagle out of the pair’s nest in the dark of night and onto the live wires on the night of November 3rd is unknown (although there is some wild speculation that it involved a mysterious, “reciprocal” female).

According to a PG&E spokesman, line crews in the area later discovered it was caused by a giant eagle around 9 p.m.

Death, sadly, is not uncommon for large raptors, such as bald and golden eagles.

According to a 2014 analysis of bird mortality in the United States, electrocution on power lines is a leading cause of bird mortality. Every year, 11.6 million birds fly into the wires that drain juice from our televisions, HVAC systems and blow dryers, the authors estimate. Birds die when two parts of the body – a wing, leg or beak – come into contact with two wires, or when they come into contact with a wire and a ground source, sending a lethal electric current through the animal’s body.

Because of their large size, eagles and other raptors are at greater risk. An adult bald eagle has a wingspan of 5.5 to 8 feet; It’s almost the same for the golden eagle.

An eagle couple in Milpitas was electrocuted before the woman came into contact with high power lines earlier this month.

(Douglas Gillard)

According to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Forensic Laboratory that analyzed 417 electric raptors from 13 species between 2000 and 2015, nearly 80 percent were bald or golden eagles.

Krista Rogers, a senior environmental scientist at the California Fish and Wildlife Research Laboratory, examined the dead eagle.

She found a bruise on Hope’s left foot and a small burn on the back of her right foot. She also had singed wings on both sides of her body, but especially on the right side, where Rogers said the wing looked particularly damaged. She said that most birds are electrocuted on power poles, but Hope was electrocuted during the “intermediate period”, where the wires are submerged between the poles.

Melissa Sabbotin, a spokeswoman for PG&E, said poles and wires near bird nests have been retrofitted with covers and other safety features to make them safer for raptors.

However, it appears that the birds may have touched the two strings in the middle period. Subbotin said utility company lines are spaced at least 5 feet apart — a precaution it and other utility companies take to reduce raptor deaths.

“Since 2002, PG&E has made approximately 42,990 existing power poles and towers safe for birds,” Subbutin said. The company has also repaired around 41,500 power poles in areas where birds have been injured or killed.

In addition, she said, by 2024, the company has placed nearly 11,000 pools in designated “Raptor Concentration Zones” and built them with bird-safe construction guidelines.

Doug Gillard, an amateur photographer and professor of anatomy and physiology at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, who has followed the Milpitas eagles for years, said while there is safety equipment near the school, it does not extend to the immediate neighborhood, where Hope was killed.

Gillard said a photographer who lives in the neighborhood took a picture of the eagle hanging from the wires that Gillard saw. The Times could not access the photo.

Not far from the school is a wet wetland, where ducks, herons and migratory birds come to rest and relax, a pair of eagles and a smorgasbord for their young. There are also fish in the nearby lake.

One near the water is stocked with trout, Gillard said, and late fall is fishing season for eagles. He said a group of photographers are now hanging around the pond hoping to get a picture of the father eagle catching fish.

Rogers said the bird is healthy. She had body fat, a good muscle tone and two small feathers on her stomach – possibly the remains of a recent meal. She also had an enlarged ovary and a visible fallopian tube — a bird’s fallopian tube — suggesting she was getting ready to breed, which usually occurs in January or February.

Slavin, the manager, said that a day or two before the mother died, he saw the pair preparing their nest, and saw a young female. “It was a very tense situation between the Eagles,” he said.

Gillard, the photographer, said the “friend” had black feathers on her head and tail, suggesting she was not five years old.

Gillard and Slavin say they heard from residents that there may have been some conflict between the mother and the groomer that sent Hope away from the nest and onto the wires that night.

The young woman remains on the scene, Gillard said, and is not only “tolerated” by her father, but sometimes joins him on fishing trips.

Eagles mate for life, Gillard said, but if one dies, the other will look for a new mate. If the female eagle stands around, it will be the third mate of the father.

Photographers can identify the father, whom the neighbors call “Dad” only by the damaged flexor tendon in his right paw, which looks like he’s “hitting a bird” in flight.